Movie #65 – Black Swan (2010) - 108 min, cert 15.
Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a ballerina with a New York ballet company. The director is casting for his new show – a modern reworking of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake – and the lead part of Swan Queen is up for grabs because the main dancer within the company is retiring. Nina is desperate to land the role, just like everyone else, and she is technically the best dancer. However, the role requires the dancer to change personalities part way through from White Swan to Black Swan, and this latter part requires much more freedom and sexuality. Nina’s precision and grace are perfect for the White Swan, but not for the Black Swan. A new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), is much better suited for this part, but Nina gets given the role anyway. The continuous pressure from the director, her overbearing mother, and the other dancers becomes too much, and she begins to suffer a mental breakdown, becoming paranoid that Lily is trying to steal the lead part from her.
This is a very dark film. I discovered after watching it that the director, Darren Aronofsky, was also responsible for Requiem for a Dream which I watched last week, and I can see the similarities. Both films deal with lives that are spiralling out of control. With Requiem it was generally clear when we were looking at the world through the skewed mind of the character, and when we were not. In this film, however, we are always looking at things from Nina’s point of view, and that can make it very hard to tell just what is real and what is paranoid delusion. But then that is probably Aronofsky’s intention. He wants it to seem very real to the audience, just as it seems real to Nina. Only at the very end do you really start to piece together what was real and what was not.
Overall, I liked it. It was dark and edgy and difficult to watch at times, much like Requiem for a Dream, but that helps make it memorable. I like films that are not instantly forgettable.
Score – 8/10
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